Without reading the thread …
I think the odds of liking Moon are slightly higher if one dislikes Stranger. They’re different in many ways. I like both, though.
Your second sentence is more correct than the first. What most people overlook is that there are three governments in the book: a minimal “penal economy” one permitted by Authority and subject to whatever rules it cares to impose; a revolutionary dictatorship run by 1-4 people that exists only by manipulating every aspect of the social and legal system; and a rather vanilla democracy that bores even the protagonist into leaving. None stands out as any shining example of libertarian praxis. The first two do point out that libertarian governments seem to be able to exist only when encapsulated by stronger forces that fill in their many gaps.
Heinlein? The guy who named a character John Thomas so he could make a bunch of smutty double-entendre jokes to show up his hated editor? Nah.
I liked the early part of Stranger, but once it got involved with religion, it was a slog.
Harsh Mistress is a better novel, without the dropoff in quality in the middle. I can see the Libertarian liking for it (I think that the concept of TANSTAAFL is very Libertarian), but you can’t really call Heinlein a Libertarian, since his political beliefs are different in different novels. Glory Road, for instance, favors monarchy and Double Star favors a modern liberal democracy (and is my pick for Heinlein’s best). Starship Troopers is pro-military in a way that I’m sure Libertarians would object to.
I’ve long said that nobody should ever read Stranger as their first introduction to Heinlein. Everyone either loves it or hates it, and that’s basically independent of what they’ll think of his other books. If you read it and love it, fine, but if you hate it, you’re turning yourself off to a wealth of other books you’d likely enjoy. Read a half-dozen other Heinlein books before you get to Stranger; that way, if you don’t like it, you’ll still have the others to form an opinion on.
Thanks for all the feedback. I’m now excited to start Moon, probably this weekend after finishing book three of the Farseer Trilogy.
Agree completely with RealityChuck above. I thought Moon was a great pulpy-age read. Stranger started out well, but changed focus about halfway through from speculative scifi to meandering pontification.
Joe dies at the end.
What hogarth said… schoolmaster - male schoolmarm - female schoolmistress - younger female
Generally agreed. Although the religious bits were an exposure to different perspectives and Ideas I hadn’t considered, such as
the Lord’s Supper as ritualized cannibalism
Also, if you want to like Heinlein in adult mode, try Double Star. It’s basically a novel of political intrigue, and the “futuristic” aspects are more or less incidental. With a few minor changes it could be set in the “now”. Double Star is another of my five favorite Heinlein titles.
I’m currently reading Stranger, and mostly hating it. Jubel seems to have disappeared, which is a blessed comfort, but now it’s very much concerned with religion, which bores me. Far too much of the book is taken up with people explaining things rather than doing things. Regarding the feminist aspect, it is definitely not enlightened, even for its time. The social and political world that the action takes place in is very poorly defined.
*Mistress *is far more interesting and better written.
It’s essential to understand that *Stranger *was not written as an sf novel, nor as a stripe of novel much seen in that era. It’s a formal satire, a comedy of customs. Trying to read and appreciate it without understanding Heinlein’s aims would be like, oh, reading Catch-22 or MASH as a serious war novel. Or - not too far a reach - Hitchhiker’s as a serious travelogue.